Abstract
Globally, COVID-19 has caused significant damage, including business closures and changes in how entrepreneurial activities are performed. The pandemic has spawned a slew of publications with the majority thereof being editorials, commentaries, and concept notes. This implies a lack of empirical evidence on the pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to explore the COVID-19 challenges and coping mechanisms for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Data for the study were collected from 15 SME owners through semi-structured interviews using a generic qualitative research method. The findings revealed that the SME COVID-19 challenges included lockdown restrictions, customer loss, lack of government support, and scarcity of raw materials. The coping mechanisms used by the SMEs were having a positive entrepreneurial mindset followed by reduced service prices and the retrenchments of employees. Theoretically, the study contributes to the scarce empirical evidence on COVID-19 challenges and coping mechanisms for SMEs in the South African context; to the available literature in the entrepreneurial ecosystem context and to the world at large. Practically, it is recommended that during crises, businesses should network with one another to remain operational and, owing to e-commerce, they are encouraged to have an online presence.
Highlights
As of 2020, the world has experienced a major shock that has had a global impact on society and economies on a scale not seen since the First and Second World Wars [1].This shock is the coronavirus (COVID-19), which emerged in China in late 2019 and quickly spread to the rest of the world by early 2020
The first theme was the challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the South African entrepreneurial ecosystem, while the second theme was the coping mechanisms employed by SMEs
Theme 1: Challenges Faced by SMEs as a Result of COVID-19
Summary
As of 2020, the world has experienced a major shock that has had a global impact on society and economies on a scale not seen since the First and Second World Wars [1]. This shock is the coronavirus (COVID-19), which emerged in China in late 2019 and quickly spread to the rest of the world by early 2020. Empirical evidence suggests that entrepreneurship, and SMEs, can identify and commercialise changes in market trends [2]. Evidence suggests there was no wide application of technology by SMEs in the past years, but due to the covidian disruptions, SMEs have adopted the application of digital technologies to avoid shutting down [3]
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